Becoming a Demons cheerleader was the last thing Harper Madison expected when she moved to the small town of Peachville. Now that she's an official member of the squad, her training can begin. Only, this is no normal group of cheerleaders. Harper isn't there to learn dances and cheers. She became a cheerleader in order to finally learn how to control the magic inside.

The Peachville Demons cheerleading squad is really a training ground for a powerful coven of witches called the Order of Shadows. The training opens up a new world for Harper. It's a world of beauty and magic beyond her wildest dreams, but also a world of pressure and impossible expectations.

A world where every secret hides an even darker secret.

INNER DEMONS, Book 2 of the Peachville High Demons series is out!

Thanks to all the awesome comments from my critique group last week, I was able to put the finishing touches on Inner Demons over the weekend. This morning, I worked on the formatting and published through Smashwords!

It feels so amazing to get my second book out there. I have really been working hard over the past several months, and I couldn't be happier with all the comments and reviews I've gotten so far. I'm both nervous and excited to see what you think about Book 2!

Kindle and Barnes & Noble versions will be uploaded today as well, but they usually take a little longer to show up in the stores. I'll keep you posted!

In the meantime, here is an excerpt:

Lark smiled mischievously, like she had a secret.

“What?” I asked.

“Watch,” she said. She slid off the bed and sat down in the center of her floor on a square pink rug. She crossed her legs and set her hands palm up on her knees.

I felt a tingle of energy on the tiny hairs on my arm. I didn't know whether to sit down with her or back away.

Her eyes closed and her lips moved silently. There was movement in the air that lifted my hair slightly off my shoulders. Underneath where Lark was sitting, the pink rug slowly turned a color of teal as bright as pictures I'd seen of the Caribbean ocean. The color crept outward from her in a circular pattern, like a drop of water spreading on a napkin.

The dark wood furniture suddenly became shiny white. The polka-dot bedspread turned black with teal and white stripes, the color perfectly matching the newly teal rug on the floor. Other details of the room changed too. Like the lamp on her bedside table. I watched as it turned from a wooden base with a pink shade to a tall chrome base with a shimmery white shade. When the circle of color reached the edges of the room, a bright white paint climbed up the walls, replacing the pink that was already there. One wall became a teal accent wall.

Less than ten minutes after Lark sat down, the entire room transformed in front of my eyes. I stood, open-mouthed, staring at each changed detail.

“You like it?” She opened her eyes and stood, hand on one hip, surveying her work.

“Like it? This is incredible.” I walked over to the bedside table and touched the lamp to make sure it was real. The chrome base was cool to the touch and very much real chrome.

My cover designer, Ken Vahn, sent me the final image of my new book cover, and I'm thrilled! He really does a great job, and I love how it's very similar to the first book, but that it has its own darker overall impression.

I am currently in the final stages of revision on INNER DEMONS, Book 2 of the Peachville High Demons series. It is scheduled for release around December 20th, 2010!

Yay! My first book, BEAUTIFUL DEMONS, has officially been out for one month! Technically, the book came out on Amazon on the 30th of October, but to make book-keeping easier, I'm just going to lump those 2 Oct. days with November. I have decided to write a monthly sales numbers blog, just for any interested parties who are also trying to self-publish online and want to see what's possible. Hopefully as the months go on and more books of mine come out, the numbers will continue to grow and grow!

So here's the scoop for Month #1 of my life as a self-published author. In the hopes of trying to set up a good reporting method now that will still make sense when I have multiple books published, I'm going to list the book title and a super-brief description, each sales outlet where my book is available, the date the book became available for purchase, and finally, how many copies were sold through that outlet for the month.

BEAUTIFUL DEMONS - a young adult fantasy book about cheerleaders who are witches

Amazon's Kindle Store - Available 10/30/10 - Sold 34 copies

Smashwords - Available 10/29/10 - Sold6copies

Barnes and Noble - Available 11/02/10 - Sold 99 copies

Total November Sales: 139

So far, my books are only available in digital format. I priced the book at only $0.99. I am hoping to add print copies soon, but right now I'm focusing on getting a second book available as soon as possible.

My numbers are definitely modest, no doubt about it. On the other hand, I'm extremely proud of this first month. My only marketing so far has been several mentions on twitter, a few blog posts here on my own blog, some time spent on the Kindle user forums, and basically telling my friends and family to tell everyone they know. I wasn't expecting to sell more than 50 copies to be honest with you, so the fact that I'm closer to 150 is awesome. By the time I'm writing this, I've already sold 147 copies!

Moving ahead, my plan is to produce quality books fast. Some other Indie authors have encouraged me to spend several months marketing a book before it comes out, but I have a different theory right now of what will work best for my career. Content is King. Without a publishing house backing me, I think the fastest way to build reader trust and confidence is to have several books out and available for download. Sure, lots of people self-publish one book. But how many people continue to crank out book after book? Not nearly as many. Readers today want content, so my plan is to concentrate on getting content out there as fast as I can. Obviously, I want them to be good, but I think I can do both!

I want to ramp up my marketing as well. I need to work on getting more Twitter followers, guest blog posts on popular book blogs, reviews of my book up on various sites, and I want to spend time working on some SEO. Each month I plan to ramp up with more and more marketing until I feel I have a firm foundation. My second book, INNER DEMONS, is currently in edits and is scheduled for release around 12/20/10!

The decision to self-publish was a difficult one to make, but now that I am doing it, I couldn't be happier. For me, this is 100% the right path. There's no waiting, no one telling me what I can or can't write, no one changing my story or slapping a cover on it that I don't agree with. I'm in complete control of my product, and I love every minute of what I'm doing. Month #1 was a great start, and I'm looking forward to seeing those numbers go up every month.